Too old to have sex? No way!

Some might find it hardly surprising that women report having fewer nights of passion as they grow older.

Yet lack of quantity is made up for by an increase in quality, it seems.

A study of hundreds of more senior women found they were happy with their sex life even though encounters were less frequent.

Californian researchers analysed data that 806 women gave about their sex lives. The average age was 67 but some were in their 80s and some in their 40s.

Half had been sexually active in the previous four weeks although the proportion fell off sharply with age.

Eighty-three percent of the youngest women were classed as sexually active, compared with 13 percent of the oldest, the American Journal of Medicine reports.

Sex drive was low among the oldest women to take part in the survey but satisfaction was high.

Further delicate questioning revealed that the oldest women were as likely to be satisfied with their orgasms as the youngest.

Overall, the odds of a woman being very satisfied with her sex life, whatever the frequency of encounters, went up with age.

About 47 percent of the oldest women described themselves as being very satisfied - whether or not they were having sex.

This is almost double the 25 percent figure for the youngest women.

The researchers said: “The percentage of sexually satisfied women actually increased with age, with approximately half of the women aged more than 80 reporting sexual satisfaction almost always or always.”

However, the satisfaction rate applied whether the women were having sex or not.